Rota airman gets six months for obstruction of justice

An airman stationed at Naval Station Rota, Spain, was convicted at a court-martial of obstructing justice in the stabbing of a Spanish woman at a nightclub last year, Rota officials said Wednesday.

Airman Norwin Gaines, 27, from Rota’s Naval Station Air Department, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, carrying a concealed weapon and obstruction of justice. He was accused of disposing of the knife used in the nonfatal attack and lying to investigators after the February 2004 incident at Rota’s La Mecca nightclub, Lt. Allie Freeman, base spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview.

The woman with whom Gaines was in a relationship with at the time, Petty Officer 2nd Class Kacy Guebert, 25, has been accused of stabbing the Spanish national.

Guebert has been charged with aggravated assault, conspiracy, making a false official statement, obstructing justice and carrying a concealed weapon, Freeman said. Guebert works as an information systems technician in Rota’s Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron, Freeman said. No trial date has been set in her case, Freeman said.

Gaines was sentenced to six months’ confinement, reduced in rank to E-1 and fined $3,000, Freeman said.